Experimental and numerical analysis of the hydraulic and thermal performances of the gradually-varied porous volumetric solar receiver

A gradually-varied porous structure is designed to increase the thermal performance of the porous volumetric solar receiver. Based on the replica method and multilayer recoating technique, the silicon carbide porous ceramic with linear-changed geometrical parameters is fabricated. The performances of the uniform and gradually-varied porous volumetric solar receivers are studied by both experiment and numerical simulation. An optimization method combining genetic algorithm and computational fluid dynamics analysis is applied to determine the optimum porosity distribution. The results present that porous volumetric solar receiver with linear-changed geometrical parameters exhibits better thermal performance than the uniform porous volumetric solar receivers, especially when the thickness of the receiver is small. Larger porosity in the front is beneficial for increasing the solar radiation penetration depth, which limits the reflectance and thermal radiative losses. Smaller porosity in the rear traps more solar radiation and increases the convective heat transfer. When the receiver’s thickness is larger, the performance of the gradually-varied volumetric solar receiver is nearly identical to that of the uniform receiver with largest porosity. The double-layer configuration is found to be the optimized structure of the gradually-varied porous volumetric solar receiver. The thermal efficiency could be further improved using genetic algorithm with an 11 K increase of the outlet temperature.